


What's A Body, Anyway?

by PunishedPyotr



Series: Only Ones and Zeros [4]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: ...sort of..., Erectile Dysfunction, Fingering, M/M, Minor Violence, Weird Fluff, he's a computer..., inspired by a scene in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue, reupload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 06:19:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13607382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunishedPyotr/pseuds/PunishedPyotr
Summary: Liquid is bored; Mantis has been neglecting him lately.





	What's A Body, Anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> I looked it up and most artificial intelligence programs are written in Python. So I kinda took a crash course in it, looking for terms to use in this fic. (Hey, I studied Java in school, okay?!)

Mantis almost always knows what Liquid’s about to say before he says it. He usually says it anyway.

“I’m bored.”

Mantis takes a deep breath and holds it for a long time before finally letting it out. “I know,” he says.

“There isn’t anything to _do_ around here, and you’re always _away_ ,” Liquid complains.

“I know,” Mantis says again. “I have been trying to look into getting more environmental data for this simulation to use, but they’ve started trying to give the girl some proper training, and…”

“…and if you don’t come when called, they’ll get suspicious,” Liquid grumbles, grudgingly, “and they might find out that you’ve been hanging out in the network, and they might find _me_.”

“And I do not know what they would do with you if they found you.”

“Maybe stick me in the body of a fifteen-year-old girl, too. Honestly sounds awful, but it _would_ mean being able to get off this virtual island.”

Mantis gave him an unamused look. “That is… unlikely, Eli,” he says, even though Liquid was half-joking, “they only did that with me because they wanted to harness my psychic powers, and you have already proved yourself to be a nuisance to them anyway. They would probably delete you.”

Liquid sighs. He thinks Mantis is being paranoid but they’ve already had this discussion - he knows that Mantis’ caution is justified. He’s already died, twice. “You know it sickens me, the way the Patriots have you collared like this.”

Mantis pets his hair, somewhat condescendingly. “You are simply too used to being the one holding my leash, Eli.”

“I’m serious, Mantis. And I’ve seen what goes on in their ranks, I don’t like any of this. I don’t trust them.”

“I know, I know. You have good reason not to, and I do not trust them either.” He slips his hand down to the side of Liquid’s face. “Sooner or later they are going to give Screaming Mantis a greater freedom of movement. As soon as they do that, I will take my first opportunity to escape their clutches - switch allegiances if I have to.” He shakes his head. “Hopefully my nanomachines won’t be _completely_ disconnected from the network… I will manage, somehow.”

“Hm.”

“But back to the issue at hand… I know that Jack has cut ties with them, but I think his VR regimen should still be intact. I could go copy some other AIs for you to play with.”

Liquid makes a face. “I hope you’re not thinking of getting the other members of FOXHOUND.”

“Oh no,” Mantis says, “I know full well how… _upsetting_ it is to interact with the shallow imitation of someone close to you. I had something else in mind.”

“…you have my attention.” Although Liquid does have to admit that Mantis going and doing this exclusively to keep him entertained while left alone kind of makes him feel like some… large, excitable pet that gets too stressed when parted from its master for too long.

Mantis laughs, and pats his cheek. The funny thing is that Liquid doesn’t really mind it.

The next time Mantis visits, it’s been 4,672 minutes according to Liquid’s very-accurate-nowadays internal clock, and Liquid is bored out of his skull, having spent the last three days with nothing better to do than count tiles, and he kept losing track of how many there were anyway. But he perks up when he _senses_ , in some abstruse way, Mantis’ sudden appearance - alright, fine, the pet comparison was completely accurate - and he finds him on the roof of Communication Tower B.

“There you are,” Mantis says as Liquid sneaks up behind him, just before he can grab him around the middle and press a kiss against his ear (but he does it anyway), “I have something to show you.”

“Oh?” Liquid says, still holding him.

Mantis silently hands him a pair of binoculars that Liquid is sure he wasn’t holding before, but the more Mantis learns to manipulate the simulation’s code with his psychic powers without causing bugs, the more apparently god-like he becomes. Liquid takes them and looks down across the facility, to the heliport, because he knows without him saying that that’s what Mantis wants him to do.

There are _people_ down there.

“Gurlukovich soldiers?” Liquid says, zooming in.

“Yes,” Mantis says, “aside from the cyborg ninja, they were the only ones programmed to attack other AIs.”

“Attack? Ooh, Mantis,” Liquid says, lowering the binoculars, “you gave me a base full of _hostiles?_ My birthday isn’t for another month, you know.”

“That soon? I really am losing track of time with all the drugs Screaming Mantis is on.” He sighs. “I can't stay long today. Now, if there is a way for you to set the parameters for the simulation, I do not know what it is yet, so as it stands only I can decide how many soldiers there are and the only way to change their numbers between now and whenever I get back will be by killing them.”

“Fine by me,” Liquid says immediately. “How many are there now?”

“I gave you fifty to start out with, but they are all set to the highest difficulty. I also dug up the AI for the cyborg ninja, so he’s running around here somewhere, too. Mind he doesn’t get to _all_ the Gurlukovich men before you do.”

“The cyborg ninja,” Liquid mumbles, surveying the virtual Shadow Moses through the binoculars again. “Mantis, I don’t suppose you could-“

“No,” Mantis says, “only one ninja at a time. There can be as many Gurlukovich soldiers as you like because they all technically use the same AI, but the ninja is coded for solo use. If it met another version of itself in the same simulation, glitching may occur.”

“And that might not play nice with the _rest_ of the simulation,” Liquid guesses.

“Indeed… I _would_ rather this place stay intact.” He waves a hand. “Anyway, I have to go. Do not forget that if you get yourself ‘killed’, you will not be able to wake up until I return. Have fun.”

“Oh, I will,” Liquid says, grinning.

* * *

Mantis comes home and shuts off the hostile AIs - he doesn’t want to deal with them - and finds Liquid lying in the snow at the bottom of Communication Tower A. His eyes are closed and one arm is at an awkward angle.

He opens his eyes and glances at Mantis, though, as he approaches.

“You let them chase you up to the roof and jumped off?” Mantis sighs.

“I didn’t really _jump_ ,” Liquid says, his voice a little thick, “it just turned out that Gray Fox was on the roof when I got there and I sort of… fell.” He half-raises the arm not at an awkward angle, then lets it fall back to the snow tiredly. “Tried to catch myself but I think I broke my arm. And my spine, too, I can’t actually feel anything below about… here,” he says, clumsily gesturing to the bottom of his ribcage. “Then the alert wound down and as it turns out, the Gurlukovich soldiers don’t patrol down here, so I’ve just been… lying here, for the past 1,455 minutes.” He pauses. “On the plus side, this is definitive proof that I am _not_ programmed to freeze to death.”

Mantis rolls his eyes. “If you have questions about how your AI framework works, you could just ask. I think I covered just about everything with your digital counterpart before your consciousness suddenly showed up and overrode him.”

There’s a slight pause as Liquid takes a moment to be embarrassed for asking before actually asking.

“…do you mind?” he asks.

“Give me a moment,” Mantis says dryly, then he mentally dives into Liquid’s code. Liquid twitches, he breath catching.

It’s a weird feeling, as Mantis searches for the specific lines he needs. It’s like— well, the only thing Liquid can think to compare it to is having a horrible gaping wound that someone shoves their hand into and wiggles their fingers, but that’s not quite right because it doesn’t hurt, and not just because Liquid’s so numb with cold that he can’t feel anything anymore. Besides, he _does_ feel this. It’s beyond what Liquid thinks of as a body, _deeper_ is the word he’d maybe use, but really it reminds him that what he thinks of as his body is really just a 3D model - polygons, textures, hitboxes, and an animation rig, the tiniest part of his _actual_ body now.

The comparison to the weirdly but not altogether unpleasantly intrusive feeling of cleaning his ears, except more intense and encompassing his whole being, occurs to Liquid just as Mantis finally tracks down his injury variables and resets them. He gasps as feeling suddenly returns to the lower half of his body, unconsciously raising his hips for a moment before falling back to the snow once more.

“Whew,” Liquid wheezes, holding his previously broken arm up in front of his face and stiffly clenching and unclenching his fingers. “No matter how many times you do that, Mantis, it’s always… hm.”

He wonders what it would be like under less extreme circumstances… this is the first time he wasn’t in agonizing pain when Mantis did it, but that was only because he was paralyzed and hypothermic.

Mantis doesn’t comment on that thought, although Liquid can feel a little bit of exasperation basically radiating off of him. Instead Mantis helps him stand and starts walking him back towards the entrance of the tower. “Your skin is freezing cold,” Mantis murmurs.

“I’ll try to have my back broken indoors next time.”

Liquid is taken to a breakroom tucked away in the corner of the Nuclear Warhead Storage Building’s first-floor basement, where Mantis takes off his snow-soaked coat and boots and deposits him on the couch, then throws his own coat over him. He steps over to a small counter where there’s an electric kettle, and Liquid waits patiently as Mantis makes him a cup of tea just how he likes it.

He nods his thanks when Mantis hands him the cup. Mantis half-shrugs, then sits on the couch too, settling against him.

“Even though I knew that you were perfectly alright,” Mantis mutters, “I still found it… distressing… to see you lying there like that.”

“If it were possible for me to _actually_ die from that, then I would have used my one functional arm to drag myself back inside,” Liquid says dismissively, although at the same time he leans his head against Mantis, nuzzling him.

“No thought about being more careful in the first place…”

Liquid doesn’t reply. He’s starting to warm up, and the tea’s extra good today considering he hasn’t actually tasted anything in years, and he’s very comfortable. Especially with Mantis so close.

Probably in response to that thought, Mantis shifts slightly, loosely wrapping his arms around Liquid’s waist and resting his head on his shoulder. Liquid finishes his tea, and Mantis floats the empty cup over to the counter, pressing the filter of his gas mask up against his heck and nuzzling him in turn.

“Affectionate today, aren’t you?” Liquid says lightly.

“I _have_ been neglecting you lately,” Mantis says.

Liquid opens his mouth to reply but all that comes out is a sharp gasp as he feels some part of his body he doesn’t have a name for being _touched_ , and a little shiver runs through him. He realizes half a second too late that it’s the same thing Mantis did earlier, psychically rooting through his code and not bothering to do it in a way that Liquid wouldn’t feel, and it feels even better now that Mantis isn’t actually looking for anything, just groping around aimlessly.

He realizes several seconds too late that he’s red-faced, digging one hand into the couch cushion and gripping Mantis’ leg with the other.

“Do that again,” he breathes.

Mantis nods against his throat, pulling himself a little closer, and Liquid’s body - or his model, anyway - jerks and twitches as he bites his lip, breath cut. He can feel Mantis’ psychic fingers reaching into him and stroking his program, plunging between lines of code, brushing against modules and functions — it’s obtrusive, invasive, _penetrating_ , and god it feels so good.

At the same time, he feels Mantis’ hand trail up his side - and thank God, he knows his sense of touch in this VR is heavily geared towards pain, but that doesn’t mean pleasant sensations no longer exist. If anything, he’s more sensitive than ever, whether because of a bug, a miscalculation on the original programmers’ part, or a simple disconnect between the AI framework and Liquid’s consciousness; much to Mantis’ amusement, in fact, Liquid’s actually ticklish now, and he squirms in his arms.

“Enjoying yourself?” Mantis murmurs in his ear.

“A-Aa-aah _fuck_ , M-Mantis…”

He impulsively grabs Mantis’ hand and leads it down to his groin, where he grinds against his palm feverishly, panting. Mantis allows that, and keeps fingering his tuples, making Liquid’s eyes roll back in his head. Oh god, this feels so much better, so much more intense than every time Mantis let him hump his leg in life.

His pace cools as he melts against Mantis, moaning pathetically.

He stops eventually, still shivering and shifting his hips a little, especially as Mantis gently massages his crotch. It feels good - pleasurable - certainly, but they didn’t give Liquid a sex subroutine and he can’t actually get hard anymore. He whimpers in frustration.

“I think I like it better like this,” Mantis says, toying with an OverflowError exception. “No fuss, no mess, but I still get to watch your thoughts turn all incoherent and desperate.”

“Mnhh…”

“But I do have to be careful, Eli,” Mantis continues, “a single character being nudged out of place could be all it takes to make you crash.”

“R-Risky, huh…” Liquid mumbles, then arches his back, groaning, as Mantis caresses a loop. “Th-that just makes it m-more, oh— e- _exciting_ , Mantis…”

“Deviant…”

He twists around, drawing Mantis still closer with the hand that isn’t holding Mantis’ over his groin, and kisses the side of his face where the seal of his gas mask meets his skin, over and over. Eventually Mantis sighs and just takes it off (there’s no around besides Liquid, he knows that, that doesn’t make him entirely comfortable with showing his face) and Liquid kisses his mangled lips insistently, moaning into his mouth.

Part of him’s frustrated that he can’t get it up no matter how aroused he is right now, and orgasm is always going to be perpetually out of reach, but the rest of him is weirdly grateful that he no longer really has a limit to hit, and he can keep feeling like this for as long as Mantis deigns to mess around with his code.

Weirdest sex he’s ever had, honestly. Not that there’s admittedly a lot of competition in that sector.

Liquid shudders against Mantis, bucking his hips as Mantis’ psychic reach goes deeper, running his 'fingers' through strings and objects and _oh!_ that right there might have dipped right into his binary code. This is pleasure on a level he didn’t even know _existed_ , and hell, it _didn’t_ , not until he’d been changed from flesh-and-blood (as limited as _that_ was) to circuitry. By this point the absentminded fondling of his groin isn’t even registering with him anymore.

Nothing much is, aside from the incredible, intrusive sensation. He can’t think. He just distractedly mumbles against Mantis’ skin: “I love this, I love you, this feels so good, thank you, I love you so much, keep going, don’t stop, more, more, more, please, I love you, Mantis—-“

Mantis abruptly stops. Liquid shivers for a moment, panting, the aftershocks strong enough that it takes him a bit to catch up with the fact that most stimulation has suddenly ceased, the only thing left being Mantis’ arms around him.

“Wh- why’d you stop?” Liquid whines, rubbing his face against Mantis’ shoulder.

“I have to go,” Mantis says, “they’re calling me.” He stands up, his touch withdrawn with just a single, friendly pluck at a line of code on the way out that Liquid almost doubles over at.

He growls in frustration. He’s pretty sure he’s never been this turned on before, lack of an erection be damned.

“Do you want me to turn the hostile AIs back on?” Mantis says.

“N-No,” Liquid grumbles, flopping on his side and curling up under Mantis’ coat, “leave me be, l-let me feel sorry for myself…”

“Eli…” Mantis sighs, picking up his mask and sounding more exasperated than anything else.

“Just— just make sure you come back soon as you have a spare moment, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

Mantis leans down and kisses him gently, and then he’s gone, and Liquid’s the only one on Shadow Moses again.

He can still feel a kind of leftover thrumming where Mantis’ psychic hands had passed. Like his whole body, 3D model and artificial intelligence program both, are tingling in dissatisfaction.

He rolls over, sighing to himself and closing his eyes. He can’t sleep in the simulation but he can kind of space out while waiting for Mantis to return. Time always seems to pass faster when you’re not really paying attention to it, after all.

All alone once more, Liquid waits for Mantis to come home.

**Author's Note:**

> (any and all comments will be forewarded to aireyv! i will either copy/paste their reply to me or they will reply on their own account! have a nice day!!! if you have any questions, just ask!!!!)


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